SearchDay: Flabbergasted Edition - May 23, 2011

Still here huh? If you were not swept up in the rapture this weekend, like these poor souls, then be thankful that you did not give away all your money to fund a Harold Camping’s apocalyptic billboard campaign. The reverend is said to be flabbergasted that his prediction missed the mark – a second time around. Of particular note is that for his supposed last day on earth, he did not venture to enjoy the beauty of creation, but toiled at home… updating the Family Radio website. I guess we have much in common after all… no rest for the wicked, eh?

Here’s a roundup of today’s search news and headlines from around the web.

Industry

• Google Was Warned on Rogue Drug Ads – Wall Street Journal
  Did knowingly profit from illegal pharmacy ads? Or Did Pharmacychecker, a third party service, fail them? And why are all eyes on Google and not Bing and Yahoo?
• Google Search Patterns Could Track MRSA Spread – Wired
  Search query data could be used to better target public health campaigns and slow down the spread of infection from city to city.
• Google eBooks: By the Numbers, Then and Now – Inside Google Books
  Number of free ebooks available grows by 30% to 3 million, number of e-bookstores grows by 150% to 250.

SEO

• Do The Right SEO Thing… Or Not?
  Panda recovery advice could be a case of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t”.
• WordPress SEO URL / Permalinks considerations – Yoast
  A collection of Matt Cutts videos on URL structure, spun to make more sense in the context of the WordPress platform.

PPC

• Pay Per Click (PPC) for SMB Part 3 – An Introduction to adCenter
  Too basic to really be useful guide to adCenter interface.

Analytics

• Conversion Optimization: Top 5 Places to Start – Search Engine Watch
  5 Areas of your site that you might want to start testing conversion rate.
• Multivariate Testing: Parametric Data Analysis – ClickZ
  Pretty advanced guide to the maths behind comparing tests.

Social

• Simple Twitter Searches to Generate Content Ideas – Vertical Measures
  Does what it says on the tin. Simple and practical.
• How to Build a Great Contest – SEOmoz
  Delicious info. One for the bookmarks.

Mobile

• Newest Stats on Mobile Search – ClickZ
  Another one for the bookmarks. 5 sets of mobile behavior stats put into context.
• Delivering Mobile Branding at Scale with DoubleClick Rich Media – Google Mobile Ads Blog
  DoubleClick can now serve rich media ad into AdMob.
• Disco, Googles Secret Group Messaging App, Gets Pushy With Version 2.0 – TechCrunch
  Google’s Slide team stealthily upgrade group messaging app to include push notifications.
• Google Voice integration renders Sprint family plan useless – VentureBeat
  Poor Google Voice integration with Sprint overcharges customers.
• Foursquare and Groupon Planning Distribution Deal – All Things Digital
  Look out for Groupon deals targeted to Foursquare check-ins.

Video

• Google Goes Gaga For Chrome TV Ad – Search Engine Watch
  Lady Gaga crowdsources content from fans to produce Chrome Ad.

Companies

• Google Acquires “Kayak For Consumer Electronics” Sparkbuy– TechCrunch
  Sparkbuy team join Google fold to improve product search.

Technology

• Backlink Tool Review: Ontolo – Search Engine Watch
  Ontolo could save you 80% of your time spent researching potential new link partners.